The Replacement
by Youkomon
Summary: Just because your memories can be transfered...doesn't mean you're the same person. Nobody can replace the fallen. But that doesn't stop Chiro from trying. However, not everyone shares his views...


Here's something that'll make you cry…well, maybe not but it's….strange to say the least. Hmph. This is your fault, you people who were talking about Jinmay 'upgrades' at the forum. You should really know better than to put ideas in my twisted fanfic-crazed mind…in short, how could you!

Oh yes, I am evil. Evil is great. Evil is cool. And so are warnings.

Warning: Character death. I do not wish to receive flames saying, "Omigod, you sick bitch, how could you do such a thing? Rot in hell!" I warned you and it was your eyes that did the rest, NOT my voodoo dolls…

Oh, and just 'cos I do have a trace of goodness in my soul…all memories/flashbacks are in bold, italic text so you won't get too confused.

* * *

He still remembered. How could he not?

_**Sprx had been clutching her cold cold arm, shaking her prone form and screaming at her like he had never seen him scream before.**_

"**_NOVA!"_**

'**_Nova, Nova, Nova, Nova'…it echoed in the recesses of the mind like something diseased and rotten. No one's vocal cords should ever be that strained._**

_**He himself had been holding together the cracks in his heart as he desperately tried to ignore the fact that something was sloshing against his hands, even with them forcing together the void in another chest cavity.**_

_**He couldn't let her die, he just couldn't…just like Sprx couldn't let Nova go.**_

_**The tears stung like no other earthly pain as he realised what the cost of battle had done. A cost that cut too deep and carried on slashing through and through when he looked Gibson in the eye and pleaded with him to save her.**_

_**And even as he heard Gibson's answer, even as he realised the full implications of his actions, he said just one word.**_

_**Yes. Do it. Nod. I accept. Save her.**_

_**He had seen Antauri die once before, ripped from the inside out with purifying green light. He had seen Nova's eyes thrust into the coldness of death. And now he viewed the engine oil over his hands as it stemmed from Jinmay's chest, never ceasing in it's fluid motion.**_

Chiro shuddered. Instantly a small hand crept into his own.

"Chiro?"

He smiled.

"Don't worry, I'm fine."

The smaller form gazed up at him, unsure, her pink eyes melting into pools of whipped concern.

"It's a beautiful sunrise, wouldn't you say?"

She turned and he admired the way her bulbous eyes caught the rainbow like patterns of the multi-coloured sky in the drizzle of a crisp morning.

"Yes…yes it is.."

"**_No…."_**

_**Sprx was shaking, quivering like a wolf ready to bolt and latch all to an arm with all the primitive savagery of fury.**_

"**_You can't…I won't let you…"_**

_**He gazed at them all, wide-eyed as though he had only just seen them for the first time.**_

"**_This…this is murder!"_**

'_Murder, murder, murder'_…a horrid mantra…but one that held no truth of it.

But even so, even now, Chiro gazed down at his gloves and saw not the engine oil of Jinmay being soaked up in the worn material but the blood of Nova.

"**_Sprx…she's dead…"_**

_**Gibson looked broken as Otto slumped against his shoulder, the tears rolling down his cheeks in an agonised descent.**_

"**_What? No…no…it's not right…she wouldn't give up on us like that! And we can't give up on her now! She's always pulled through before!"_**

"**_But this is not before…" Antauri spoke at last, his voice tired and strained with grief, "this is now. And if we do not act soon another life will be lost."_**

"**_She'll come back…she'll always come back…" whispered Sprx, each word laced with pain and barbed with denial._**

_**Everyone looked away as Sprx's scream of horror and choked back sobs of realisation were revealed to the night air at last. Antauri's impressive psychic powers were able to force the mind of another to see the truth, no matter how hard they fought not to. But the sight was not pretty. And the results brutal.**_

_**It was the first time he had ever used it on a team member.**_

Chiro grimaced at the sight of one particular strip of the sky that darkened to the same hue of blood. What he had ordered to be done…it was selfish yes…but at the same time it was the right thing to do. And yet…and yet it had been so unnatural, had felt so wrong.

But what was the point of letting another life surrender to death? Would he have let her creep away under the perverse glint of the Reaper's scythe?

No. Not he.

"Chiro?"

A tug at his sleeve. He looks down at the yellow monkey gently.

Her voice never used to have so many soft intonations in it.

"I've had so many amazing memories with you…but this…it just feels wrong…"

_**Sprx sat huddled in a corner, mouth drawn in a harsh line and his eyes fixated on something that wasn't yellow or metal.**_

_**There was a whine of drills and sparks of hot white light flashing in the background as Sprx's eyes flickered occasionally refusing to take in the view of Jinmay's left arm sprawled out within the corner of his vision. A neat hole, courtesy of Gibson's drills was visible in the back of her head, the memory circuits neatly torn out and missing.**_

"**_It's done."_**

_**Sprx cringed at Gibson's methodical statement.**_

_**A stir. A gentle flutter. And a small body breathed once again.**_

"**_Chiro?"_**

_**The boy flung himself on the female monkey's form, sobbing loudly.**_

_**Sprx's own eyes clutched tightly shut as he cried softly, digits buckling into palms forcefully.**_

_**It sounded like Nova. But it wasn't. And it never would be.**_

"Jinmay…" murmured Chiro, "I couldn't lose you. No matter what…and Nova…she would understand, I know she would…she wouldn't want anyone suffering…"

He picked her up, nuzzling his face into her vibrant fur. It was a poor substitute for her original locks of pink and cream but it was her. And it yet was also Nova.

They couldn't kiss. Not properly. Their mouths weren't the right shape…and of course there was Sprx to think of as well.

Chiro let out a sigh as she slipped out of his embrace nimbly.

"I'll be in the Robot if you need me."

She waited until he was out of sight. And then she held up a newly made giant fist.

"This life…it was never mine to begin with…I-I'm sorry Chiro…"

She dropped the helmet with a clang and aimed so that the fist was facing the main processor in the operating system area of her brain. The part that controlled all life support.

She let out a juddering sigh from those stolen lips. And swung.

* * *

Sprx's eyes twitched. Even from his squatted position he could recognise the faint clang of metal on metal.

He gazed up into the sky.

"You gave up," he stated simply, "You're **_nothing_** like Nova. She **_never _**gave up."


End file.
